Byron Bay Bluesfest, 2014
A quarter of a
century ago, the Byron Bay Bluesfest ran for the first time, out at the old
Brewery on the western edge of town. This weekend, as the event celebrates its
silver anniversary, the evolution in one of Australia’s most successful music
festivals couldn’t be more evident.
Coming from humble
origins, Bluesfest is now big business; hundreds of artists performing on six
stages over five days to tens of thousands of punters out at its now permanent home,
the Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm. It’s no longer simply a blues festival either, but
one which showcases a myriad styles of music, from pop to rock, blues, jazz and
all in between.
The 25th
incarnation of the event kicked off the Thursday just gone under cloudless blue
skies, sodden Easter weekends of years past a distant memory. Numbers seem slightly
down this year, perhaps because headliners John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band and
The Doobie Brothers don’t have the pulling power exhibited by Robert Plant, Bob
Dylan, and Paul Simon over the past few years.
Regardless,
Bluesfest has still attracted a true music crowd in 2014, from young kids
getting about in felt hats and American-Indian headdresses to veterans, camping
chairs slung over shoulders; it’s a listening crowd, lovers of the form.
“It just feels
like home,” Friday night headliner Jack Johnson, a festival regular since 2002,
told the Sun-Herald. “It’s very free,
and I think [artists] feel free to stretch out onstage, try things you haven’t
tried before, it’s that kind of audience, you don’t feel judged. You’d almost
be judged more if you didn’t try
things.”
At time of
writing, Johnson’s set had drawn the biggest crowd of the weekend, all singing
along, a true family gathering. For that’s what Bluesfest is, one big, happy, diverse
family, one which will no doubt keep meeting annually for the next 25 years.
Samuel J. Fell
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